Robert Downey Jr. Biography

Actor

Robert Downey Jr.

Born Robert John Downey Jr., April 4, 1965, in New York, NY; son of Robert
John (a filmmaker) and Elsie (an actress) Downey; married Deborah Falconer
(a singer; divorced); married Susan Levin (a producer), August 27, 2005;
children: Indio (son; from first marriage).

Sidelights

While the talent of Robert Downey Jr. as an actor has never been in
question, his brushes with the law and drug and alcohol abuse have often
overshadowed his acting career. After appearing in a number of teen flicks
in the 1980s, he emerged with an Academy Award nomination for his work in
1992's
Chaplin
as silent film star Charlie Chaplin. Becoming sober in the early 2000s,
Downey continued to appear in challenging films.

Born in 1965 in Greenwich Village, Downey is the son of Robert Downey, an
underground avant-garde filmmaker, and his wife, Elsie, an actress who
appeared in his films. Downey and his older sister, Alison, were raised
primarily in New York, though the family spent a year in Europe and Downey
attended a British prep school for a year. Downey had an unusual
upbringing which included being introduced to marijuana by his father at
the age of six, a decision Downey Sr. later regretted.

Downey inherited a love of acting and performing from his mother, and
began appearing in his father's films at an early age. He made his
film debut in
1970's
Pound
. All the actors played dogs, and Downey played a puppy. The actor then
appeared in his father's 1972 release called
Greaser's Palace
. This was a violent film in which the character played by young Downey
had his throat slit by another character playing God.

When Downey was 13 years old, his parents divorced. He first lived with
his mother in New York City, but soon moved to California to live with his
father. Downey began attending Santa Monica High School, but dropped out
when he was 16 years old because he wanted to begin an acting career. He
then moved back to New York to focus on acting. He appeared in some
regional and Off-Broadway stage productions, including a role in a play
called
American Passion
when he was 17. Downey also auditioned for television pilots and other
roles. In 1982, the actor appeared in
America
, a feature-length film directed by his father. Two years later, Downey
began a relationship with actress Sarah Jessica Parker. The couple lived
together for a number of years, until a painful 1990 split.

After appearing for a season on NBC's sketch comedy show
Saturday Night Live
from 1985 to 1986, Downey focused almost exclusively on an acting career
in mainstream films. In the early to mid-1980s, the actor began appearing
in supporting roles in teen comedies like
First Born, Weird Science
, and
Back to School
. Downey moved to leading roles with 1987's
The Pickup Artist
, which became a cult classic. In that film, he played a schoolteacher
looking for love.

As Downey began finding success as an actor, he developed what would
become a long struggle with drug and alcohol problems. In the late 1980s,
one role reflected his own life. He played Julian, a crack addict who was
once rich but had to work as a prostitute to pay for the debt to his
dealer in 1987's
Less Than Zero
. Downey sought treatment for his own addictions, completing treatment the
same year the film was released.

Downey's career continued to build in the late 1980s and early
1990s. He shined in the 1989 romantic comedy
Chances Are
, playing a reporter who realizes that he is the reincarnation of the dead
husband of a woman he meets. Downey also had critically acclaimed roles in
1989's
True Believer
and 1991's
Soapdish
. In the former, a courtroom drama, he played a young idealistic lawyer.
The film, however, was a failure at the box office. In the latter, he
played a complex television producer. His
Soapdish
co-star Kevin Kline told Jamie Diamond of the
New York Times
that "Robert opens doors most people are reluctant to and lets out
strange and exotic creatures."

In 1992, Downey had a breakout role in
Chaplin
, a biopic of silent film legend Charlie Chaplin. Directed by Sir Richard
Attenborough, the film was a critical and box office triumph. It covered
the whole of the comic actor/director's life, with Downey playing
the adult Chaplin, the focus of the movie, from ages 19 to 83. Downey
researched the role extensively and even taught himself to play tennis
left-handed like Chaplin.

Even Chaplin's daughter, Geraldine, thought Downey played the role
to perfection. After seeing Downey's screen test for the role,
Benedict Nightingale of the
New York Times
quoted her as saying, "I was flabbergasted and in a way horrified.
I had thought my father was unique. But Robert has the same silhouette,
the same way of standing, the same way of pondering. And the way he moves,
his hands, everything. To watch him still give me a very, very weird
feeling." This role, which resulted in an Academy Award nomination,
was perhaps the high point of Downey's career.

The triumph of
Chaplin
confirmed Downey was a serious actor and lead to many leading roles in
the 1990s in both comedies and dramas. He appeared in a variety of roles.
Shortly after
Chaplin
, Downey starred in the romantic comedy
Heart and Souls
and narrated a documentary,
The Last Party
, about the 1992 presidential election. In addition to appearing in the
comedy
Only You
in 1994, Downey had a critically acclaimed turn in
Natural Born Killers
as Wayne Gale, a tabloid journalist.

Many of his roles were challenging. In 1995, Downey appeared in a costume
epic,
Restoration
. Two years later, he played a dying AIDS patient in
One Night Stand
. Also in 1997, Downey had a leading role in
Two Girls and a Guy
. He played an actor who becomes involved with two women who learn about
each other. What began as comedy turned into a tense drama. In
1998's
The Gingerbread Man
Downey portrayed a private investigator, and in 1999's
Black and White
he played a gay husband.

While Downey's career was solid, his drug problems increased
through the decade. By the mid-1990s, he began being arrested on
drug-related charges instead of going to rehab. In 1996, Downey was
arrested for cocaine and heroin possession as well as possession of an
unloaded .357 magnum after being pulled over for speeding. He was
sentenced to probation and rehab, but Downey ran away from the program and
missed court ordered drug tests. He continued to use cocaine. Downey was
arrested again for being high, entering a
neighbor's home, and falling asleep on a bed inside. Violating a
court order to not use drugs, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail which
he began serving at the Los Angeles County Jail in December of 1997.

Downey was jailed again in 1999 for violating his parole. Though he
emerged seemingly clean, he relapsed again. Drug problems continued into
the early 2000s. He was arrested again in November of 2000 for drug
possession and again for felony drug possession in early 2001 after a
cocaine and Valium-induced spree at a resort in Palm Springs, California.
Despite these many arrests, he still had the support of fans and was able
to find work. David France and John Horn of
Newsweek
wrote, "People want him to succeed … not just for
Downey's good but as a victory for the human spirit."

During this period, Downey continued to appear in acclaimed roles such as
in the ensemble picture
Wonder Boys
. He played a bisexual literary agent in the film, which was released in
2000. Downey also branched out into television, after one of his stints in
jail. He took a role in the hit television show
Ally McBeal
from 2000 to 2001 as Larry Paul, a lawyer who becomes involved with the
titular character. Downey won a Golden Globe Award for best supporting
actor in 2001 and was nominated for an Emmy Award. His 2001 arrest led to
his firing from the show.

Downey took about two years off from acting in films to focus on a
year-long rehab program to kick his drug and alcohol addictions. He
finally embraced sobriety this time, but his past addictions created
problems with his career. Because of his past, Downey had to put up part
of his salary up or get insured on certain shoots; otherwise producers had
to pay much higher insurance costs. In 2003, he insisted drugs and alcohol
were no longer a problem. Downey told Jason Lynch of
People
, "I'm less of an insurance risk than anybody I'm
going to work with for the next while because I am aware of my
limitations." This situation led to Downey losing a role in a Woody
Allen film.

His comeback project came in the 2003 noirish film
The Singing Detective
as a hospitalized novelist who is suffering from psoriasis,
hallucinations, and other paranoias. The character also puts himself in
the screen version of his novel in his dreams. While that film only saw
limited release, Downey also appeared in
Gothika
in 2003, which co-starred Halle Berry. On the set of this film, he met
Susan Levin, a producer, who became his second wife in 2005.

In 2004, Downey took on a new artistic project when he recorded and
released his first album,
The Futurist
. In addition to singing and playing the piano, he wrote eight songs on
the record, some inspired by the films he had appeared in, and also
covered the songs of other musicians. Of his songs, Downey told Hilary de
Vries of
New York Times
, "I think I'm more sensitive and introspective and filled
with wonder at the universe because of what I've gone through than
I care to admit. So every one of the songs is influenced by my experience,
but I hope it's a little obscured." Downey had written songs
for years and previously recorded a few singles which appeared on some of
his movie soundtracks.
The Futurist
received good reviews from critics.

Downey continued his film career, primarily in independent films, in the
early 2000s. One film that received rave reviews was 2005's
Kiss Kiss Bang, Bang
, a comedy-adventure which parodied film noir/pulp fiction detective
dramas. Downey received critical kudos for his performance as Harry
Lockhart, a thief who becomes an actor and later has to help a detective,
played by Val Kilmer, who happens to be gay. Commenting on Downey's
performance, Jay Stone of
The Gazette
wrote, he "dominates the movie with an unforced and natural
performance."

Also in 2005, Downey appeared in
Good Night and Good Luck
, a drama about the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s filtered through the
experiences of journalist Edward R. Murrow. The film was directed by actor
George Clooney. Downey played Joe Wershba, who worked with Murrow. In
2006, Downey appeared in
A Scanner Darkly
, a rotoscope-animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel, along with
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. That same year, Downey showed that he still
had some mainstream appeal when he played Dr. Kozak in the Disney remake
of the children's film
The Shaggy Dog
.

Downey's acting career seemed to be back on track with many roles
planned in a number of films, including a role in
Zodiac
, In this film, he played a journalist named Paul Avery who was fascinated
by the Zodiac Killer in the 1970s. Of Downey's undeniable talent,
Michael Sragow of
Salon.com
wrote, "On big screens or small ones, in comedy or drama, he moves
through dark and light emotions like unique multicolored quicksilver,
sluicing to the heart of elusive characters…."